Jalen Williams’ 40-point eruption in Game 5 to lead the Thunder to victory and move them one win away from their first NBA championship was a defining moment in his young career. To that point, he’s had the ups-and-downs typical of a young player in the playoffs, but that was his first time asserting his dominance on the biggest stage, affirming his star credentials.
With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the Thunder’s unquestioned leading man, Williams has garnered comparisons to Scottie Pippen as Oklahoma City’s talented No. 2 who brings secondary creation, scoring and defense much in the way Pippen did alongside Michael Jordan for the Chicago Bulls. Fans and the media aren’t the only ones who see the resemblance to the Hall of Famer, as Pippen himself told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon that he sees a lot of himself in Williams’ game.
“He is pretty special,” Pippen said. “I’m enjoying watching him. I see a lot of me in him for sure. I see a guy rising to be one of the top players in this league. He’s definitely a player that is capable of being able to lead that franchise to multiple championships — him and Shai, of course.”
Williams added that he feels like a “new-age Scottie” and is flattered by the comparisons he and SGA are getting to Pippen and Jordan. However, Pippen went on to explain that he doesn’t want to put a ceiling on what Williams can be, noting that in the modern game there’s more freedom for players of that archetype that can allow them to flourish even more, which he thinks will make JDub “greater” than he was.
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“I don’t even want to put a cap on him to say that he’s going to be me,” Pippen said. “I see him being greater, if I can say that. Just because of where the game is today. They have offensive freedom. We didn’t have that. We mostly ran out of a system. These guys have the freedom to shoot 3-balls and things of that nature. Players that are playing in today’s game have a chance to be better than players in the past because of the ability to shoot the ball.
“If this kid continues to shoot the 3-ball the way that he shoots it, I’m not going to sit here and argue with nobody and say that you can compare us. Because you can’t. He wins.”
The greats of the past aren’t quick to heap this kind of praise on young players, so this is quite the statement from Pippen. He clearly views Williams as a special kind of player to co-sign the comparisons, because guys are often wary of embracing those comps to players that haven’t yet accomplished the same kinds of things they did. On Thursday night, Williams and the Thunder will look to close out their first NBA title in Game 6 in Indianapolis, and if they do, they’ll be on their way towards trying to fulfill those comps to the greatest team in NBA history.
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